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Diagnosing Disaster

“Why Did We Destroy Europe?” It’s an arresting title, chosen by Michael Polanyi for a 1970 essay that looks back on the conflagrations that consumed Europe between 1914 and 1945. (The essay can be found in Society, Economics & Philosophy, a posthumous volume of selected papers by . . . . Continue Reading »

The Dead End of the New Left

For decades, the progressive left has denounced the West for fostering imperialism. Since at least the 1960s, the reaction of the left to any war involving the West has been almost mechanical: Denounce, form anti-war groups, and organize student and street protests. These tactics (aesthetics?) can . . . . Continue Reading »

MacIntyre Against Morality

Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity:An Essay on Desire, Practical Reasoning, and Narrativeby alasdair macintyrecambridge, 332 pages, $49.99 I The dialogues of Plato provide the first sustained demonstration both of the depth and difficulty of philosophy, and of the fact that the beginnings of the . . . . Continue Reading »

Liberation Theology-What's Left

Among the far-reaching effects of the great antisocialist revolutions of 1989 is one that has so far not received a proper measure of attention, and that is their impact on Latin American liberation theology At least one liberation theologian, observing the collapse of the socialist dream in . . . . Continue Reading »

Michael Harrington’s Socialism

Socialism: Past and Future by michael harringtonarcade publishing, 320 pages, $19.95  If one is going to be a socialist, Michael Harrington’s variety is perhaps the best kind to be. Before his premature death from cancer this past year, Harrington worked with Dorothy Day to help the poor in . . . . Continue Reading »

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